The project described here is the third in a series of cross-agency
(now called Community Cohesion) explorations
involving the development of resources for, and by, people with learning
disabilities. (See “Healthy
Eating” JAT December 2008, and “Keeping
Safe” JAT June 2010.) Year 7 students at the Holy Cross secondary
girls’ school devised a series of simple educational games, for use
on an interactive whiteboard, to support the learning of young adult students.
The completed resources were then further developed at Lambeth College,
and were finally made available for use both by Lambeth College and NHS
Kingston’s Occupational Therapy Service for people with learning disabilities.

The Team and its Aims
The participants in the project were Lambeth College, who commissioned the
initial project, and the Holy Cross School, whose students created the
interactive games. NHS Kingston developed a file format for the games in
partnership with Lambeth College, whose students visited Holy Cross to
share the final outcomes.

The aim of the project was to use PowerPoint files to create a series of
simple educational games for use on an interactive white board. These would
be designed to meet the learning requirements of people with learning disabilities,
as well as being presented in a visually accessible way. Reference was made
throughout the project to the “Visual Impairment Tips” sheet
provided to the school by NHS Kingston. This publication gives advice on
using suitable fonts, and the principles of appropriate layout devices.

Project development
Year 7 students at Holy Cross began work on the project by creating their
own individual PowerPoint files on a topic of their choice. This pilot
project was added so that the girls could explore the possibilities offered
by the computer program, and to make suitably colourful and entertaining
games. Topics chosen included mathematical skills, as well as several games
on colour and shape. Class discussions and planning centred on how to make
logically sequenced hyperlinks between the various pages of the game, in
order to take the user effectively through the learning process, to a successful
conclusion.

Once the students were confident about the logical structure of their games,
and were sure about the visual clarity needed by the end users, the school
invited Paul Sebuliba, from NHS Kingston, to visit the classroom in order
to support the Year 7 students, and to check the work done so far. He looked
at the students’ pilot games, and gave useful individual feedback on
the project.

The Specialist Health Occupational Therapy Service for Adults with Learning
Disabilities contributed through developing the design template for the power
point presentations. This was then shared and agreed with the Lambeth College
Tutor to ensure that the final template would meet the needs of both the
OT Service and Lambeth College Learning Development Department.

The template and design principles
Lorian Mead on behalf of the Occupational Therapy Service then developed
a presentation for the Holy Cross students. The presentation covered the
key aspects of designing for adults with learning disabilities, including
a template (see below). Consideration was given to the page layout, so
that information could be confined to a sequence of two images.

The amount of information being provided was considered important in order
that people using the final PowerPoint were not overloaded. The development
stages of communication were also considered. Photos are a useful support
at an early graphically representational stage, and as such meet the needs
of many people with learning disabilities. However, the choice of photos
is crucial, as images need to represent the object clearly. Therefore the
presentation for the game-makers also included examples of a clear and accessible
image, compared to a less clear and cluttered image.

As the majority of people with learning disabilities have some form of visual
impairment, the design of the template also included the incorporation of
key elements that would enable people with visual impairments to participate
in the games. These principles include a large font size and a yellow background
to the text. It was also recommended that a contrasting colour is used for
the text e.g. black.

The actual font being used was also important as some fonts use letters
that are not easily recognisable, if the reader is at an early stage of reading
ability. For example, the letter ‘a’ looks different in cambria
font to comic sans font. Comic sans font is one of the fonts that is recommended
for use with adults with learning disabilities.

Creating the interactive games
The next step was the creation of the actual games which would be used not
only by the students at Lambeth College, but also by NHS professionals.
These games were designed to create options for the users to click on,
to advance the slides either to a correct, or an incorrect, choice of answer.
The Holy Cross students took sequences of digital pictures, at home, to
use in their individual game. Following the design brief for NHS Kingston,
they had to ensure that the sequences were clear, logical, and were presented
in an appropriate size, and with a suitable font

Topics required for the project were focussed on everyday tasks such as
the correct sequence needed for:

brushing your teeth thoroughly

making a cup of tea

ironing clothes safely

buttering bread

feeding a dog

Following their completion by the Holy Cross students, the files were sent
to Lambeth College, where students and their teachers trialled them, and
gave feedback on these games. Lloyd Mead sent the following comments:

The
Lambeth College students enjoyed doing all of the activities, and the layout
and appearance of all the presentations was of a good level, and visually
accessible.

The
students liked to hear the clapping sound file played to them when they
did well. Anne and Nicole’s sound files were particularly
appreciated.

Refinements to the games
The next step in the project was for Lambeth students and teachers to refine
the games at the College. Because the files are in electronic format, they
can easily be adjusted according to the needs of the end user.

The Lambeth college students picked the best of the samples that had been
sent and set about practising playing the games on the interactive white
board, on three separate occasions. Through observing the students playing
the games, and through subsequent conversation with the students about the
problems that they had, changes were made to the games to make them work
well for this particular student group. For example, where pictures had been
taken from the Internet some still had imbedded hyperlinks in them that would
take the students to an external website when the picture was clicked. It
was these hyperlinks that were removed, as the some students clicked on all
the pictures. Another feature that caused difficulties for the students was
that PowerPoint documents have a default setting to go to the next page when
the current page is clicked. If the student clicked on the page and not the
hyperlink, a different page from the one they had intended would come next.
To resolve this default box on the slide transition ‘Advance slide’ needed
to be unchecked so the page would only advance though a hyperlink. Some of
the hyperlinks were small and it was recommended that they were enlarged
to make it easier for the students to touch or click. On one game the hyperlinks
were next to each other, and during the trialling a student knew the right
answer but got the wrong hyperlink, so it was recommended that these were
moved apart.

Once these changes had been made, the Lambeth college students visited the
Holy Cross School. Year 7 girls presented the required changes that had been
made to their work, and the Lambeth College students, along with the Holy
Cross students, played the refined and completed games on the interactive
white board. The final games have continued to be used by the college students
on the Independent Living Skills course. The students have also used the
games on the interactive whiteboard, as a group, to reinforce the skills
of team working and problem solving developed during the project

Above, a Holy Cross Y7 student shares a moment of fun with Lloyd Mead, and
his students from Lambeth College. Her IWB game is on the interactive white
board behind them.

Lloyd comments, “Taking part in this project has been a great
opportunity and to my students to build confidence in giving feed back
on the games.
They have found the method motivating and the games have provided an opportunity
to develop their skills and knowledge of this information technology. For
me, it has been the opportunity, also, to consolidate skills in the use of
interactive white boards. I have also learnt more about strategies for introducing
and engaging students to this technology. I am now using this PowerPoint
template with the college students, using pictures of the students doing
activities such as cooking to make sequencing games which can be used to
reinforce the initial learning in the kitchen. This project has led me to
research further how interactive white boards can be used to promote learning.”

Conclusion
This has, once again, been an interesting and successful project. Holy Cross
students had the opportunity to be creative as part of their normal ICT
lessons at the school. Their work had a practical purpose, as well as developing
their ICT and creative skills. Lambeth College students were able to trial
the games, and to provide important feedback on their practical use. They
continue to enjoy using the materials. NHS Kingston developed their understanding
of how schools work, supported the project with professional input, and
gained useful training materials for service users, as an intervention
to support the development of life skills.